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The Summer of '62; Episode 63

A Visit From Jenny

Monday
morning Rich slowly climbed onto the bus that stopped in front of his
home. There were plenty of empty seats.

Jenny
Chandler sat alone. She got on the bus two stops before Rich and he
sat as far from her as possible. She broke his heart.

During
the ride to school Rich tried not to look at her, but could not
resist.

She
stared expressionless out the window as the bus bumped and jiggled
along on the country roads. Rich saw her nearly everyday and talked
to her. Her clothing was simple and colorless unlike many of the
girls. Her hair was always pulled in a pony tail as if done very
quickly because unruly strands of hair stuck out all over. She was
unpretentious and smiled shyly. She had a sister who was five years
older and quite the opposite. She was attractive, popular, and
outgoing, but quit school two years earlier because she was pregnant.
Rich often surmised that perhaps Jenny bore some of that shame.

At
school before the bell rang for homeroom Don Hastings stood relaxed
against Rich's locker.

“Our
church is having a camp-out this weekend and I can invite someone,”
Don said. “Talk it over with your mom and dad and see if you can
come.”

“Sure,”
Rich said, “I could use some time away.”

“It’s
a youth group thing,” Don explained. “And I’m the only one in
our school that goes to our church. So you won‘t have to put up
with any of this crap. It will just be a bunch of kids from other
schools. My mom thinks it would be good for you to get your mind off
things.”

“Where’s
it at?” Rich asked.

“A
woods near Spencerville,” Don said.

“What
do I need?” Rich said.

“Just
bring your camping gear and a change of cloths. All the food is
provided,” Don said. “My mom was thinking that if you can be
ready right after school, Friday, we’ll pick you up. We play at
Spencerville this week and after the game we can just go to the camp
site. They got some things planned for Saturday and we’ll have a
youth service at the camp Sunday morning. So it will be going to
church without really going to church. If you want to bring your
school cloths for Monday you can stay at our house Sunday night and
get on the bus at our house Monday morning.”

Rich
felt excited. It was refreshing and made his day somewhat pleasant.

Mr.
Larsen had Monday off from work and Mrs. Larsen got home early from
her job. When Rich got off the bus he told them about Don’s
invitation and ask them if he could go. They said yes.

Rich
grabbed his football and went out to the barnyard and kicked field
goals over the corn bin. He retrieved the ball from the other side of
the bin and ran with the ball back to the place where he was kicking
the ball from.

On
the other side of the fence to the barnyard Jenny Chandler stood
erect with her legs pressed tightly together and her arms folded.

Rich
ignored her and leaned the ball upright against a clump of grass. He
looked at her lonely figure as he stepped back and prepared to kick.
He kicked the ball over the bin determined to ignore her. He stepped
toward the bin to once again retrieve the ball. “She will stay
there until I give her my attention,” Rich thought. He walked
toward her and the closer he got to her the softer his hurt feelings
became.

Her
face was drawn and her eyes were puffy and red. Jenny quivered.

“Looks
like you had a fire,” Jenny said.

“Yeah,”
Rich said, “but that's not important. What’s wrong?”

“I’m
sorry for the way I treated you at the dance,” Jenny said
tearfully.

“Don’t
worry about it,” Rich said.

“I
know I hurt you and that’s the last thing I wanted to do,” Jenny
said.

“I
got over it,” Rich said.

“I
lied to you,” Jenny said wiping a tear from her cheek. “Nobody’s
going to ask me to homecoming and I really wanted to dance with you.”

“Okay
let’s settle this right now. Will you go to the homecoming with
me?” Rich said trying to cheer Jenny. “And we can dance all we
want.”

From Kenton Lewis: You Must Read This First To Know What The Heck Goes On Here

This site contains mostly fiction. Currently a novel is posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday entitled Beyond Beyond. It is broken down into short episodes between two and four pages each. Thus, if you enter on anything other than episode 1, it would be good the scroll down to find previous episodes.

The archives are full of short stories. Some short stories are very short, just one posting. Others are broken down into episodes also.

Every post contains 350 to 1,500 words.

Anyway, I hope you visit several times a week.

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This Is He

Taken shortly after my beheading. I refused to give up coffee. "Not from my cold dead hands!"